Great Norway Adventure

This is a video submission I helped my friend Phil make for his entry to a Norwegian reality TV show.

Phil’s Adventure from Patrick Craig on Vimeo.

Bacon & Kool-Aid

Ha! Danny Gibson at DJG Design found an old letter he wrote to santa that they published in the newspaper. Man, I bet he got the best gifts ever! He gave Santa the ultimate treat!

New Focus Artist

Her name is Ariel Caroline and she does wonderful paintings and photography. She sells her work through her website as well as Last Thursday in Portland. Read More Here

Font Conference

How can you not like this?

Rock & Roll is Easy

I just finished a website design for a super top secret rock and roll based thingamajig. The clock was ticking and it had to be done fast. I finished the design phase for the site in one day. I would consider it one of the better sites I have done recently. It’s exciting, fun to use, look at, and at the same time, informative. It had little to no pre-planning. I just went with my gut instincts. I cranked up the WHO in my headphones and let it all out. I apologize if I am sounding cocky, cause I am not. But I just want to get my point across. More often than not, we over think things. Brands need marketing committee meetings, strategy phases, and information architecture. I wonder what the world would be like if we stopped over thinking things and went with our gut and just put it all out there? How refreshing would it be if companies just told it like it is? Imagine Wal-Mart launching a global campaign saying “You are a cheap ass, so come buy our stuff. It is cheap and we have everything.” I mean the truth is powerful. Rock & roll is easy to design for because there are no rules. I can write something like “come get your face destroyed by rock” and no one thinks anything of it. More companies should take on this model. A Target ad, “Our stuff is designed well and still cheap, check us out” (ok, I may be stretching it a bit but you get the point). We love our friends cause they are honest with us and let us in to their everyday thoughts. Why don’t marketers do this? Hmm I may be on to something here…..

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU

A friend passed this to me on the interweb. Thought I would share. It is pretty amazing.

Boston has been good to me.

I just spent three days with two wonderful clients in Boston.

First, we have been asked to redesign www.zipcar.com. They were just fantastic people with a great product. Car sharing is a great idea for the urban markets. For every Zipcar on the road 15 cars are taken off the road. This is the kind of projects I get excited about. Not only do I get to work with smart people, but the work I do will help make a difference in the world around us.

Second, I am working with a few folks at M.I.T. to redesign and rebrand www.mitworld.com. The site is a video depository of the lectures given at MIT. Yes, these are the lectures of brilliant, Nobel Prize winning, global changers (is that a real word?). They will be showcased by the work that I do. It’s a dream job for me. Which is why I am very happy to say that after a wonderful tour of the campus (I saw a sweet robotics lab), I presented the work our team did for them. I believe they quoted it as “spot on” and “progressive”. Could I be any happier?

While Boston has surely been good to me, I am starting to worrying that I am bad luck for them. Since I have been here the Sox have lost twice and the Celtics once. The Celtics play in 30 minutes from now. Let’s hope that Kevin Garnet can set things straight tonight.

Go see it.

This was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.

Stimulation

In my career I have visited many creative studios. There are many that believe in order to keep “creative types” happy at work, you have to provide lots of toys. I have seen a concept room in which the floor is one huge pillow. I have seen pinball, fusball, and video games within studios. I have played basketball on the rooftop of one agency and drank at a fully stocked bar inside another.

The further I move forward in my career the less these things matter to me. When I was getting my start, sure, these things were important. These days I spend much of my time trying to avoid stimulation. Information seems to be coming at me in all directions. I get information supplied to me over instant messenger, twitter, flickr, text messages, voice mail and of course my personal as well as work email. All there things happen simultaneously while I am listening to music in my headphones. I am plugged in at all times. Whenever a message or email comes in I run to check it. This has got to stop. Good ideas are extinguished by these kinds of outside distractions. I need less in my job, not more. I want a studio to offer me work environment where email is filtered for me. Or perhaps someplace where I can focus on one or two jobs at a time. not fifteen. I want to concept with a sketch book in a blank room, not at the same time 8 people are visiting my office.

I know what you are thinking…quit bitching and do something about it. I agree. Here are a few things I am going to do to make my life less stressful.

1. I will check my email at 8:00 am, noon and 5:00 pm. That is it.
2. I will come to work before you do, and I will be damn good at making coffee
3. I will exercise in the morning. This will get my blood flowing.
4. I will focus on quality over speed. Less concepts, more attention to detail.
5. I am going to get my letterpress going. It is what makes me excited about design right now but I can’t find the time to do it. I have to overcome this.

Trip to NY

I recently took a work trip to NY. The only way to describe it is overstated. Times Square can only be described as graphic design vomit. Everything is about out shining the next. Flashing lights, neon, movement, dimension, it is everywhere. You want to make something stand out in TImes Square? Do an all white 50 foot billboard with small helvetica bold in the middle. Who knows, the whitespace might start a revolution.